PESHAWAR, May 20: Lack of investigation facilities in state-run hospitals has been forcing the patients to go to private diagnostic centres, doctors say. According to a cardiologist, only one of the three teaching hospitals in the city has an angiography machine and that too remains out of order every now and then.

He said patients went to private laboratories where they paid exorbitant fees and added that many of those centres were set up by cardiologists, who have been working in government hospitals.

Sources said the echocardiogram machine at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) had been lying out of order for the last four years. Doctors said they had repeatedly taken up the matter with the administration but to no avail.

Despite the presence of a 12-bed coronary care unit at the KTH, the non-availability of basic machines there, like hutler monitor that records heartbeat and ambulatory blood pressure monitor, has hit the patients hard. These machines are also lying out of order since long.

The only automatic X-ray processor at the KTH's radiology department is not enough considering the large number of visiting patients. The other processor has been out of order for the last three years.

Radiologists say at least three processors are needed for as many shifts. Besides, they say, of the six X-ray plants, only two are working. Sources said the two machines that were used for fluoroscopy were also not functioning.

The non-availability of cassette screen cleaners is also affecting the quality of X-ray films in hospitals. Facilities for another test, MRI, are not available at the LRH and KTH.

Even hospitalized patients are sent to the Hayatabad Medical Complex for the purpose. CT scan, which is advised to patients often, is not available at the KTH. The Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) has got the CT scan machine but it remains out of order most of the time.